Beaches in or near England’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have the same levels of litter as those in unprotected areas, new research shows.The study used 25 years of beach cleanup data collected by Marine Conservation Society volunteers…

Collecting plastic waste near coasts ‘is most effective clean-up method’, Guardian UK (01-19-2016)Analysis finds that placing plastic collectors near coasts would remove 31% of microplastics, versus 1% if they were all in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage patch.
Analysis by oceanographer Dr Erik van Sebille and undergraduate physics student Peter Sherman at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London – published on Tuesday in Environmental Research Letters – suggests that targeting the patch itself is not the most efficient way to clean up the oceans…